Ferocious Female Freedom Fighters (1982)

Ferocious Female Freedom Fighters

“Have you ever heard that little voice inside you say that there’s more to life than slamming another woman to the mat with incredible force?”

We continue our journey through the depths of Troma’s catalog this week with Ferocious Female Freedom Fighters, which contains two reliably Troma staples:

The movie’s cover is a beautiful, buxom woman who appears nowhere in the film.

The movie rips off a better known source but sprinkles in a lot more self congratulation and jokes about bodily functions.

Here we have the minds behind the scenes ripping off Woody Allen’s What’s Up Tiger Lily? If you don’t know that movie, a simple summation should suffice: Allen took a Japanese spy film and dubbed new dialogue and sound effects over the action.

That’s a pretty great way to make a cheap movie. Charles Kaufman seized upon this and decided to do the same. Since Charles Kaufman is the man who wrote and directed When Natures Call and not the man who wrote and directed Sleeper, the results are less than stellar.

If your response was “Swiss shit”, congratulations, that’s right. Now tell the joke about a dozen more times and you’re basically reenacting a large portion of the film.

That violates copyright laws. You could go to jail. (But I won’t tell.)

Bambi (Eva Arnez) – This is the main character. She doesn’t want to fight. But she does.

Barney (Barry Prima)– A kung fu fighter who talks like Elvis and fights kung fu. These are deep characters, you see.

“You dirty rat! … You. Dirty rat! You dirty… rat!”

If those character descriptions are vague or hard to decipher, that’s because the film doesn’t give me a lot of lateral movement. It’s honestly easier to figure out what’s going on in the movie they’re talking over than the one they’re attempting to craft.

I think– think— what the movie is pretending to be about is that Bambi’s brother has a condition where his sexual arousal threatens to blow up his head. Yes, the movie contains the line, “Oh, I can feel the semen rushing to his brain!” (You’re welcome for all the great Google results for that line, Tars)

Besides forcing Bambi to fight, it’s pretty much a plethora of fart noises, and a whole slew of Hanna-Barbera cartoon sound effects.

Kickin’ it!

A lot of times we have monologues since that’s so much easier to dub than lip movements. There’s weird reverbs, and most of the character’s voices are similar enough to be indistinct.

The movie itself is fairly dull, as long scenes of fighting seem to happen in the same places over and over again. There’s a nice long bout of mud wrestling, but that’s about as sexy as it gets. Unsurprising.

In the jokes department, it gets better as it goes along and whenever it dials down the sex and fart stuff. There’s a couple bits, like a guy doing variations on Jimmy Cagney, that manage a few chuckles. Ferocious Female Freedom Fighters is also awash in 1982 pop culture references, so for those of us who will get a chuckle at someone suggesting the possibility of an Inchon 2.

Why this movie was made. Or, why the original movie was made. Why the dubbed soundtrack was added… I can’t explain that outside boredom.

But that’s rare. It’s barely an hour, but it feels longer. I’m glad I took notes for this movie, as this is pretty much the most I can remember of it.

3 Responses to “Ferocious Female Freedom Fighters (1982)”

These “funny” dubs always give me mixed feelings, as far too often I want to watch the original film more than the remix, but occasionally there is a funny dub that actually works. I am thankful The Raid exists as it helps push this away as one of the most accessible Indonesian films. Well, that and The Raid is awesome.

Barry Prima was the star in Indonesia during the 80s, Mondo Macabro put out some great-looking remastered DVDs of Devil’s Sword and The Warrior that are worth tracking down, especially with an extra that is an interview with Barry Prima and he’s a bit out of it and not too fond of his own cinema legacy.

Ferocious Female Freedom Fighters has a sequel that is minus alternate dubbing and minus Barry Prima, if anyone wants to learn the further adventures of the 4Fers.